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SPECIAL CONSENSUS LONG I RIDE Compass Records 4668 If you want to know how Special Consensus has managed to stay in business for 40 years, all you have to do is pick up a copy of Long I Ride. Many bands in many genres offer up all kinds of commemoratives and anthologies upon reaching a…

DAVID HOLT & JOSH GOFORTH GOOD MEDICINE High Windy HW1293 Partially filling the void left by the passing of Doc Watson, this duo explores the riches of old-time and country music to uncover all too rare gems. That’s a tall order, but these gentlemen are up to the task. Singing with a smile, playing myriad…

MOUNTAIN HEART BLUE SKIES Compass Records 74662 2 Mountain Heart returns with its first music recording in five years that the band calls the “most emotional performance of the best batch of songs of our careers.” The latest line-up includes Molly Cherryholmes (fiddle and vocals), guitar prodigy Seth Taylor, multi-instrumentalists Jeff Partin (bass, reso-guitar, and…

O’CONNOR BAND WITH MARK O’CONNOR COMING HOME Rounder Records 1166100003    I would never have predicted the one-time fiddle wunderkind Mark O’Connor would be leading a family bluegrass band. The O’Connor Band, however, has produced a truly striking album of singular beauty entitled Coming Home. Despite an almost no banjo album, Coming Home is irrefutably bluegrass…

ERYNN MARSHALL GREASY CREEK Dittyville Records 007    Fiddler Erynn Marshall, born in British Columbia, nurtured in Toronto, West Virginia, and Kentucky, and now living in Galax, Va., has contributed original old-time tunes before. Her “Springfield” is played in jams in many places. Her new CD features 13 original tunes. Some of them were commissioned, and…

RODGER KING & CASEY PENN KINGPENN Infrared Records No Number One of the greatest joys in reviewing CDs is the discovery of new music, especially when it’s the quality of Rodger King and Casey Penn. The Arkansas duo won a state-wide performing/songwriting competition hosted by Infrared Studio and, as a result, released Kingpenn. The 10-cut…